Sunshine and your heallth

I'm re-posting this article because it's March and yucky weather out there..keeping us indoors and missing out on the sunshine when it's there !..We need that vitamin D to keep our immune systems working right..

Taking a good D supplement helps, but is still no substitute for the sun!..at least 15 minutes a day is what does the trick..I've been inbound too much these last few months.. my knee hurts even more when we have that cold damp weather and winds.. I take 5000iu. of vitamin D supplement everyday..and look forward to some warm sunshiny days.  

No matter where you take that walk or how you spend time in the sun..Your doing yourself a huge favor ! (my photo, Ft. Myers Beach, Fl.

How much time do you spend outdoors absorbing the health giving sunshine and Vitamin D?  

 In this article you'll read how little our food gives us in this  vitamin and why is D so important to our health.

I also noted that as we grow older we do not receive all the D our bodies need ..for a number of reasons that are stated below....

I'm happy to share another great article by Dr.Mercola

Story at-a-glance Vitamin D deficiency is prevalent in adults of all ages who always wear sun protection (which blocks vitamin D production) or limit their outdoor activities Researchers estimate that 50 percent of the general population is at risk of vitamin D deficiency and insufficiency, and this percentage rises in higher-risk populations such as the elderly and those with darker skin Signs you may have a vitamin D deficiency include age over 50, having darker skin, obesity, achy bones, feeling blue, head sweating, and gut trouble Increasing levels of vitamin D3 among the general population could prevent chronic diseases that claim nearly one million lives throughout the world each year Optimizing your vitamin D levels may help you prevent cancer, heart disease, autoimmune diseases,

Studies have shown that if you improve your vitamin D status, it reduces risk of colorectal cancer, prostate cancer, and a whole host of other deadly cancers by 30 to 50 percent. You’re correct. Cancer is a big deal. You need to realize that vitamin D is playing a very important role in helping to maintain cell growth and to help fight cancer when a cancer cell is developing in your body.” Vitamin D also fights infections, including colds and the flu, as it regulates the expression of genes that influence your immune system to attack and destroy bacteria and viruses. In this interview above, Dr. Holick expounds on these and many other health benefits of vitamin D. For instance, optimizing your vitamin D levels can help protect against: Cardiovascular disease. Vitamin D is very important for reducing hypertension, atherosclerotic heart disease, heart attack, and stroke. According to Dr. Holick, one study showed that vitamin D deficiency increased the risk of heart attack by 50 percent. What’s worse, if you have a heart attack and you’re vitamin D deficient, your risk of dying from that heart attack creeps up to nearly 100 percent! Autoimmune diseases. Vitamin D is a potent immune modulator, making it very important for the prevention of autoimmune diseases, like multiple sclerosis and inflammatory bowel disease. Infections, including influenza. It also helps you fight infections of all kinds. A study done in Japan, for example, showed that schoolchildren taking 1,200 units of vitamin D per day during winter reduced their risk of getting influenza A infection by about 40 percent. I believe it’s far more prudent, safer, less expensive, and most importantly, far more effective to optimize your vitamin D levels than to get vaccinated against the flu. DNA repair and metabolic processes. One of Dr. Holick’s studies showed that healthy volunteers taking 2,000 IUs of vitamin D per day for a few months up-regulated 291 different genes that control up to 80 different metabolic processes, from improving DNA repair to having effect on autoxidation (oxidation that occurs in the presence of oxygen and/or UV radiation, which has implications for aging and cancer, for example), boosting your immune system and many other biological processes. How Much Vitamin D Do You Need for Optimal Health? When it comes to vitamin D, you don't want to be in the "average" or "normal" range, you want to be in the "optimal" range. The reason for this is that as the years have gone by, researchers have progressively moved that range upward. At present, based on the evaluation of healthy populations that get plenty of natural sun exposure, the optimal range for general health appears to be somewhere between 50 and 70 ng/ml. As for how to optimize your vitamin D levels, I firmly believe that appropriate sun exposure is the best way. In fact, I personally have not taken a vitamin D supplement for three or four years, yet my levels are in the 70 ng/ml range. Generally speaking, this will be when your skin turns the lightest shade of pink or, as Dr. Holick recommends, about half of the time you suspect it would take you to get a mild sunburn (So if you know you tend to get sunburned after 30 minutes, you’d want to stay in the sun for about 15 minutes).   There is another very important factor to Vitamin D deficiency...and that is our weight..Belly Fat, to be exact.  This was mentioned in the beginning of the article.  Obesity../belly fat. BELLY FAT..CONTRIBUTES TO VITAMIN D DEFIECIENCY ALSO.. A study on belly fat confirms that visceral fat – the type that gathers around your internal organs – is far more dangerous than having a total BMI in the obese range Cardiovascular deaths in the study were 2.75 times higher for those of normal weight who had big bellies compared to those with both a normal BMI and a normal waist-to-hip ratio Three different measurement techniques are reviewed – all of which are better indicators of disease risk and healthy body size than using BMI, which does not take muscle mass into consideration In his new book, The Fat Switch, Dr. Richard Johnson overturns age old paradigms about diet and obesity by revealing how fructose turns your body into a fat-storage machine – not by way of excess calories   Go to Dr.Mercola's website and check in the archives for these and other good articles.. TO YOUR HEALTH ! "This is the day the Lord has made I shall rejoice and be glad in it."                  Psalm 118:24